The microorganisms Ascosphaera apis, Paenibacillus larvae and Melissococcus plutonius are the three most important pathogens that affect honeybee brood. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of these pathogens in honeybee colonies and to elucidate their role in the honeybee colony losses in Spain. In order to get it, a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was de...

Api SI and Api SII are serine proteases of the honeybee venom containing allergenic determinants. Each protease consists of two structural modules: an N-terminal CUB (Api SI) or a clip domain (Api SII) and a C-terminal serine protease-like (SPL) domain. Both domains are connected with a linker peptide. The knowledge about the structure and function of Api SI and Api SII is limited mainly to the...

This paper describes a multi-robot system designed to use Bluetooth wireless communication to solve the “Honeybee” task. The Honeybee task is a simple search and navigation problem that requires a “guide” robot to lead another “blind” robot to a specific target within the environment. Topics discussed include advantages and disadvantages of using Bluetooth in robotics, as well as a variety of b...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), along with other antibiotic resistant bacteria, has become a significant social and clinical problem. There is thus an urgent need to develop naturally bioactive compounds as alternatives to the few antibiotics that remain effective. Here we assessed the in vitro activities of bee venom (BV), alone or in combination with ampicillin, penicillin...

Antibiotics continue to be used as growth promoters in the poultry industry. Honeybee (Apis melifera) venom (HBV) possesses a number of beneficial biological activities, particularly for regulating the immune system. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the immunoprophylactic effects of HBV against Salmonella Gallinarum in broiler chicks as an initial step towards developing eco-friendl...

The effects of water supplementation of bee venom (BV) on performance, antioxidant activity, and liver function in Arbor Acres broiler chickens were investigated. Hence, 3 experimental treatment groups (control, 0.5 mg/L of BV, and 1 mg/L of BV) were allocated to 3 replicates of 5,000 one-day-old chicks each. The control group was kept on tap water, whereas the other 2 groups were supplied wate...

Facial wrinkles are an undesirable outcome caused by extrinsic photodamage and intrinsic aging processes. Currently, no effective strategies are known to prevent facial wrinkles. We assessed the beneficial effects of bee-venom serum on the clinical signs of aging skin. Our results show that bee-venom serum treatment clinically improved facial wrinkles by decreasing total wrinkle area, total wri...